Description

Recognizing the potential strength of decision support researchthat utilizes both qualitative and quantitative information canprovide to campus decision makers, this issue of New Directions forInstitutional Research establishes methods for integration ofnumeric data and its contextual application. With theoretical andpractical examples, contributors explore the techniques andrealities of creating, communicating, and using balanced decisionsupport information. Chapters discuss the critical role ofmeasurement in building institutional quality; examples ofconceptual and theoretical frameworks and their application for thecreation of evaluation information; and methods of communicatingdata and information in relation to its decision support function.Providing an example of effective practice in integratedqualitative and quantitative applications, University of Wisconsin- Green Bay Chancellor Mark L. Perkins discusses the roleappropriately balanced qualitative and quantitative information hasplayed in his own institutional decision making. For professionalsinvolved in decision support research across the academy, thisthorough examination of the qualitative and quantitative paradigmsis a much-needed addition to the literature of the field.

This is the 112th issue of the quarterly journalNew Directions forInstitutional Research.